2015 Tsou Scholar: Sherrie Tucker, University of Kansas
Thursday, October 2 at 8 p.m.
Helen Filene Ladd Hall, Zankel Music Center
Lecture: "A Conundrum is a Woman-in-Jazz: Reflections on 100 Years of Ongoing Improvisation on the Categorical Exclusions of Being Included."
Jazz is often thought of as a particularly masculine musical practice; its history
usually depicted as a lineage of musical instrumentalist-geniuses, all of whom are
men鈥攗nless an 鈥渆xceptional woman鈥� is thrown in for good measure (usually a pianist).
Jazz artists who are women show up in feminized and devalued spheres (鈥渁ll-girl鈥� bands,
singers), or as perpetually emergent instrumentalists who never quite make it into
jazz recognition without gendered qualifiers鈥攔ecurrently set apart as 鈥渨omen in jazz.鈥�
This lecture is a reflection on select moments from a century of attempts by artists
and scholars to improvise their way 鈥渙ut鈥� of the 鈥渋n鈥� in the persistent category of
鈥渨omen in jazz.鈥� Whether taken as a devalued realm of feminized labor as novelty or
gimmicks, or as a revaluation project of conferences or festivals devoted to recognizing
the significance of female players, the sheer continuity of categorical exclusions
and inclusions of the 鈥渨oman in jazz鈥� category poses a conundrum for artists and scholars.
In expanding on the 鈥渨omen in jazz鈥� category as a lens for thinking through a selection
of similarly functioning inclusions of people and social categories presumed to be
鈥渙ut-of-jazz鈥� (鈥済ender in jazz,鈥� 鈥淟GB